World of Eternia: The Complete Collection (20 page)

“Well, for your
information, I was dumped in a cemetery, barely defeated a
reincarnation of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, then beat up fifty
reanimated low level skeletons, and topped it off by defeating a
death knight,” the priestess recounts her solo adventures. “How
about you guys?”

The men look at each
other for a moment. None of them were put through anything as
difficult as she did by the dungeon designers.

Finally, Lucious clears
his throat and speaks up. “I took care of a Cyclops that was
tossing boulders at me in a forest, after killing off a bunch of tree
elementals first. And then the Earth Mother tried to blackmail me
into joining her Earth faction.”

Diana's eyes widen in
shock. “You actually spoke with a Goddess? A Greater Goddess?”
she asks incredulously while pointing a shaky finger at him.

The mage rolls his
eyes. “Yes. She summoned a humongous, hundred feet tall earth
elemental to trap me beneath the earth, and threatened to keep me
below ground and suffocate me to death if I didn't join her faction,”
he replies.

“Did you?” Conrad
asks.

The young man shoots
him an annoyed look. “I don't like being told what to do.
Especially from a fickle Non-Player Character (“NPC”). I politely
declined,” he says.

“So how on earth did
you break free?” Wesley asks.

“I wrestled control
of the elemental away from the Earth Mother, and commanded the
elemental to take me back up tot he surface,” Lucious replies
nonchalantly.

Diana puts her hands on
her head and groans. “Great! Just great! Now you pissed off a
goddess, and made her an enemy! The sadistic game developers will
create a special campaign for the earth faction to come after us.
Watch -- it's going to happen!" she groans louder as she slaps
her forehead. "Don't you ever think before you act?” she
glowers at him while putting her hands to her hips.

“Of course I do!”
the mage replies defensively. “The fact of the matter is that I am
a player,” he pokes a thumb at his chest. “And I chose
not
to become an earth mage. That is
my
right
as a player
to play the way I want to play, and I'm not changing into an earth
specialist just because some dumb old NPC asked me too.”

“Come on, guys!
What's done is done, and it's time to refocus on the task at hand.
Our mission is to remove the curse from Castle Eternia by defeating
the Regent,” Wesley says, while trying to end the pointless
bickering between the two spell casters.

“Spoken like a true
leader,” a raspy voice says from across the room.

The four party members
turn their heads, and look across the room. They discover a finely
dressed man sitting on the throne of skulls. The man is vibrant,
almost as big in size as Conrad. He is dressed in a navy blue, silken
tunic and pitch black leggings straight from the medieval times. On
his head is a crown full of encrusted diamonds, rubies, and sapphires
gems.

The man slowly gets up
from his throne. He grabs a staff whose handle is made entirely of
human leg and thigh bones, ending with a human skull with two fine
jewels placed in the eye sockets. “Allow me to introduce myself. I
am the Regent of Castle Eternia, and your humble host,” he says and
nods his head slightly to his guests. “I do hope everything has
been to your liking so far,” he giggles with a mad look in his wild
eyes.

The four Strangers look
at each other uncomfortably. There is something off about this man.
At first blush, this Regent looks majestic, the picture of a healthy
man. Yet, there is a hint of madness in his facial expression, with
those deep, sunken eyes that reflect the darkness in his soul. And
the way he sits on that throne, without feeling repulsed by the
skulls, provides ample evidence as to the man's true, evil nature.

Without a word, the
party pull out their weapons, ready to fight!

The Regent continues to
walk down the grand throne room, not the least concerned with the
weapons drawn against him. “Come now, there's no need to be
frightened of me,” he coos at them as if they are cornered mouses.
He casually approaches the end of the room, where the four are fanned
out. He pauses when he is five feet away. “Since there are four of
you, and just one of me, it's not a fair fight, is it?” he giggles
as the host wiggles a finger at them. Seeing no answer forthcoming
from his guests, he continues. “So why don't we even up the odds?”

The Regent taps his
Skeleton Staff twice on the ground, and three black holes appear in
front of him. The holes expand in size until three people step
through the magical portals linked to the Nether Realms. The
newcomers are exact duplicates of the Regent, down to the hysterical
grin! The original Regent joins the triplets, and each man approaches
a party member. “En garde!” they cry out in unison as they attack
the party with their skeletal staves.

Wesley blocks the
strike from his opponent with his shield, and quickly slashes at the
Regent's leg. His opponent jumps back in time, and avoids the sword.
The ex-Marine notes the man's fast reaction to his counter strike,
and decides to adopt another tactic. He slashes wildly with his long
sword, trying to steer the man back.

The second Regent tries
to jab the top of his staff, which ends in a human skull, at Conrad's
gut. The barbarian knocks down the staff with his ivory club, pushing
the staff all the way to the ground, and slashes at his opponent's
mid section with his deadly double war axe.

Conrad's opponent tries
to jump back to avoid the axe blade, but inadvertently backs into the
first Regent instead. He is unable to move out of the path of the
swing, and takes a cut from the double-edged weapon that rips the
noble's fine tunic, leaving a large gash that starts to bleed.

The two melee fighters
press their momentum, forcing the two Regents to stand their ground
back-to-back.

“Time to play the
bully!” the knight yells out, his eyes meeting those of his comrade
for a brief moment. He suddenly bull rushes with his shield, knocking
it into his opponent's torso.

Overpowered by this
shield bash, the Regent, in turn, bumps his companion towards the
barbarian.

Conrad slams his ivory
club down, aiming squarely at his opponent's head.

The second Regent
reacts in time, blocking the strike with his skeleton staff. However,
the tremendous strength behind the blow forces the Regent's hands
down, below his chin.

The barbarian times his
swing of the axe just right and decapitates the Regent, sending the
head flying across the room!

The knight pushes again
with his shield, forcing his opponent to trip over the fallen
Regent's body. As the copy Regent is disoriented on the ground,
Wesley thrusts his long sword straight through the man's heart.

The other two Regents
prove to be even matched melee fighters with the spell casters. But
keenly aware that their number is now halved, the two Regents quickly
lean back-to-back, as all four members of the party quickly surround
the duo, ready to put a quick end to this fight.

“Gagagah!” a voice
laughs suddenly.

The four adventurers
take a quick glance in the direction of the laughter, and sees that
the decapitated head is still active!

“Let me take care of
him!” Diana shouts as she leaves the circle. Before she could
approach the head, the headless body reaches out with an outstretched
hand. She sees the head flying across the room, as if the detached
head is a yoyo on a string, and suddenly lands on the Regent's hand!

The headless body takes
the head by both hands, and puts it back on his neck. The head facing
backwards, the hands rotate the head until it is facing the correct
direction.

The other Regent lying
on the ground slowly rises, the gaping hole in his chest visible with
blood still seeping out.

Conrad narrows his eyes
at the re-risen Regents. “What the hell are they? Are they
zombies?” he asks gruffly. "Why won't they stay dead?" he
fumes as he stares at the Regent who just reattached his head back on
his neck.

“Worse,” Lucious
replies. “These guys might be liches.”

“What!” the
barbarian exclaims. “And we're facing four of them?” he notes
incredulously.

“Who knows?” the
battle mage shrugs. “It could be one lich and a few illusions. Or
it could three dopplegangers, or shadows, or simulacrums. Or it could
be four authentic liches sharing mana and health equally. We won't
know for sure until they start tossing spells around," he
speculates and shrugs helplessly. "Oh, and speaking of spells, I
need you to keep them busy while I cast an anti-magic barrier in this
room,” he requests. "I can't handle four high level monsters,
each capable of blowing the party to kingdom come. If we can keep
this encounter strictly as a melee battle with four spell casters, we
will have a much greater chance of winning," Lucious explains.

“You mean interrupt
any obvious spell casting?” Wesley asks.

“Yup!” the young
man cheerfully replies. He backs away from the Regents, running
towards the throne on the other side of the room.
The
throne may be the lich's focus
, he speculates as he stares
at it.
There is nothing else in
the room that would qualify as a focus item, not the chandeliers on
the ceiling nor the tapestries on the walls. Additionally, it would
be far too risky for a lich to use his skeleton staff as his focus
item; if the staff breaks during combat, the lich will die a final
death. No
, Lucious concludes,
it
has to be the skull throne
.

The battle mage sits
down cross-legged in the middle of the room, and lays his staff on
his thighs. Even though the odds of success in casting the spell is
only 50%, Lucious has to make the gamble to prevent the lich from
using his magic to summon anything else, or cast some sort of instant
death spell on a party member. Drawing on his mana pool, the battle
mage starts chanting the lengthy words of the Anti-Magic Barrier
spell:
“zzez-ssao-lopt-toto-ment-paty-vixe-kuje-lopt-toto-qked-cobj-wgik-plto-bagj-czol-pied-ghor-safg-xzac-look-tuon-ardt-fweu-moon-tyar-wint.”

“I'll tie them up,”
Diana tells the remaining Strangers as she leaves the circle too.
Taking a few steps away from the standing men, she quickly unties the
bull whip from her waist. She cracks the whip forward, and grabs the
formerly headless Regent. She yanks the whip back, and knocks her
captive to the ground.

The other risen Regent
tries to intervene and free her captive. He swings his staff at
Diana's head.

Timing herself
perfectly, the priestess ducks under the swing. With her opponent's
back facing her on the follow through, Diana pulls out her steel mace
and slams it down on the back of the Regent's skull. Crack!

The man collapses in a
lifeless heap on the ground.

Diana quickly ties the
whip around the other Regent, immobilizing his arms. She rips the
staff from his grasp and breaks it over her left knee. Seeing the
copy Regent still here, she says with disappointment as she tosses
the halves on the ground. “Nope, the staff is not the focus.” She
raises her mace in the air, and slams the weapon down on the tied up
Regent's head, knocking him unconscious. Turning her attention to the
other Regent who had attacked her, Diana uses her bolas to hog tie
his wrists and ankles together, laying him on his belly.

Suddenly, the original
Regent, still facing Wesley and Conrad on the other side of the room,
yells out, “Go!”

The last copy Regent
knocks into Conrad, and grabs the big man. The copy purposely falls
back onto the ground, pulling the barbarian down with him. The captor
pivots his body on the ground, kicking out with his legs and flipping
the helpless barbarian into the knight.

Taking advantage of the
sudden chaos, the real Regent moves toward the vulnerable mage,
intending to interrupt the spell. Suddenly, an idea pops into his
head, and the Regent changes his mind. Instead, the lich decides to
cast his own spell, Polymorph, confident that he can sneak it in
before the anti-magic barrier can take effect. Even if he interrupts
the spell, it would still leave four adventurers against him and his
summoned minion. In a handful of heartbeats, the authentic Regent
finishes his spell casting and starts to dramatically increase in
mass and size. His spine increases in length, his ribcage expands,
his neck and skull become elongated. Soon, a snort begins to form, as
his skin become covered with red and yellow scales. The spine
continues to lengthen as a tail begins to appear. The limbs thicken
and the fingers turn into sharp, blackened claws.

The newly formed Fire
Drake takes a deep breath and exhales, noticing the sweet smell of
sulfur in its breath. The Regent would have preferred morphing into a
Red Dragon; alas the room is far too small to accommodate the vastly
more powerful creature. Nonetheless, the smaller drake will easily
turn his unruly guests into ashes, as the drake's fire breath attack
is not dependent on magic and therefore not affected by the
anti-magic barrier. The foolish mage will soon regret casting the
barrier when
he
will be the one unable to stop the Regent from
tearing his friends apart!

Lucious is fully aware
of his environment, but he cannot stop his spell casting in the
middle, or else the backlash could knock him of the game! With his
magical sight, he sets the dimensions of the anti-magic barrier to
cover almost the entire room. However, the mage sets a small pocket
of space behind the skull throne for exclusion from the invisible
barrier. Finally, he lets go of his mana pool, which is down to
one-third now. He turns around to see what the lich as polymorphed
into. He sees the fire drake and blurts out, “Oh crap!” He
quickly backs away from the creature, heading for safety behind the
throne as the mage goes through his mental rolodex of spells effects
that may overcome the existing anti-magic barrier.